Piet

Very nice work on the shingles and great idea on the two-tone for the roof bulwarks. Cheers,

Ah yes, Kevin, that would be great! You can then add a lot of detail too. Thanks Sjors for reminding me, I'm going daffy at my old age, old timers disease Cheers,

Thanks Ulises for the double language explanation of crows-feet and what a mouse is. Oh, I could have googled it or look into my books but asking yuns is more fun Nice work on the crows-feet Sjors. My Surabya model doesn't have those, bummer and no, I'm not going to add them Cheers,

Thanks for the comments Remco. The dorsal fin I was talking about is actually the secondary back fin. In version 1.0 it's right above the croc's lower jaw and not really visible on the photo but quite evident when holding it in the hand. In retrospect I'll leave it where I had it in version 1.0 because I carved it a few mm's above the jaw. I'm glad you brought that dorsal fin issue up. Now that I look at it again that's what that skinny looking fin is supposed to be. It needs to be redrawn to make it look like a dorsal fin and carve it as such. This may also change the croc's tail and maybe not even necessary, we'll see. I'll definitely will add it when I start with the carving. It's kinda hard to draw a two dimensional shark in a twist but let me look at it again and see what needs to be done to make it look right in an open /bass relief carving where we have a semi three dimensional figure. I have also worked version 3.0 of the knecht head a little more and he now looks more better (bad spelling on porpose ) . Still a little more wood away from the back to make the skull and neck more pronounced. I love to use boxwood rather then a soft wood. With a sharp #11 or scalpel I can take very tiny cuts off and even scraping, which removes only sawdust. Thanks to everyone for visiting and putting up with my carving endeavors and your like votes. I do have some good news from my urology doc this afternoon, no trace of cancer. Bladder looks very good, like new he said and I'm now on a 6 month check schedule. I'm a happy camper :D More updates on the carving later. Cheers,

Beautifully done on the round work Paul. Cheers,

I love it Popeye, keep fantasizing and we'll wait for the results and applaud, how's that? Cheers,

The round work looks fantastic John and glad to hear things are moving in the right direction health wise. Give my best to Pam and also good to hear the encouraging words from your urologist. I had a very good visit with my urologist this PM, bladder looks perfect, no signs of cancer, I'm a happy camper. Keep the faith my friend. Cheers,

Outadisworld Patrick! They look fantastic - what an achievement. What's the length of those buggers, one finger digit? That miniature stuff can only be done by crazy people ;) I hope I can do the same someday - - - when the time comes. At least I can then prove that I am really nuts Cheers,

WOW, what a beautiful sight she is Kevin. You are making great progress and am curious to what your next build will be. Cheers,

Very nice work there jonge man! I have no clue as to what you are talking about with them mice and snakes. That nautical talk is like Swahili to me, remember that I am an airplane man Can you point out what they are and where, please? Cheer,

Thanks again to all who came to visit and hit the like button, you are always welcome in my humble shipyard. @ George: Yes, there are still many mysteries in the world for which we may never find the answers. @ Remco: Thanks but wait till version 3 or 4 or 5 come along. It's really not easy at this scale. @ Popeye: Thank you for the kudos but it's like my old friend Michael Angelo said, remove everything that doesn't belong and you'll have a perfect carving. Now, I still have a problem seeing what belongs and what not @ Pete: Thank you too my friend and yes, it's really my first attempt at this very rewarding endeavor. Well, like I mentioned last time, I was contemplating in making a new SuraBaya carving. This morning I sketched a new scene on a previously cut piece of boxwood. It's just a tad larger by about 2 mm overall. I also re positioned the croc's head with a slight twist. I added the croc's tail and re positioned the shark's head slightly to see more of the lower jaw. The shark's dorsal fin will also be moved slightly forward and made the tail more shark like. Now all I have to do is make it all work so it looks believable. I also made a second knecht (knight) for more practice, which is actually version 2.0. I used poplar wood which is really not good for this kind of work at this scale. But it's good enough for practice. There are hard and soft sections in it that tend to make the blade skip. After version 2. 0 was completed I thought that I was getting the hang of it so I cut a few blocks of boxwood and went to work on version 3.0. It's slightly better but still too broad at the cheeks. Tomorrow morning I'll remove some material and see how that looks. If Gwen thinks it's okay then I'll have to carfe a second one for the forecastle and make hats for them. There wont be much time for the shipyard in the next two days due to doctor appointments. Nothing serious, just scheduled checkups. I'll also be discussing about an upcoming MRI (again) for which I'm not too keen on. Too many radiology exposures to my delicate bod doesn't really sit well with me. Okay, here are a few pics on the continuing saga of my carving attempts. This then is version 2.0 of the Surabaya carving. I have annotated the changes I planned to make and wish me luck. Knecht version 2.0 in poplar wood, better but still no cigar. Knecht version 2.0 on the knight timber. Knecht version 3.0 in boxwood, getting a little better. Remove some from the cheek area to make the face more egg shape. Knecht 3.0 on the knight timber. Cheers,

Ingenious! I'm learning and making notes Igor. Cheers,

That looks much more gooder Popeye Dennis! I would have thought you'd opt for an open railing with a nice wooden cap rail. Would make it a little more "airy" so to speak. No matter, you can also install a few quarter feed tourist binocs for the whale watching instead of swivel guns make a few extra buck that way All kidding aside my friend, it's really looking very spiffy. Cheers,

Thanks everyone for dropping in and your comments and to all who liked my feeble efforts. @ Remco: I found that by doing this carving piece as a combo of bass relief and semi pierced relief brings with it some visible distortion when see in other then straight on. I like the idea of the shark's tail lifted op slightly but that makes the crock's mouth look out of place. To make the shark's upper jaw lifted up slightly would not be natural. Reason being is that when the shark has a hold on the crock's tail it's tight around the flesh without a gap. Actually, I do like the thought though. Right now I have second thought on this carving piece and am contemplating to make another carving. I already cut another piece of wood from the bigger blank. I want to experiment a little with this one and see what I can do with making the crock's head an jaw look more realistic from other viewing positions as one would normally look at a model. I'm also thinking of making it a few percentage points larger. The below pic will show why. Just thinking now mind you @ Jack: Thank you. @ JesseLee: Thank you as well. @ Mobbsie: Thank you too and yes, I'll be giving it another go. Like I mentioned to Remco above, I'm not happy with the results and besides I made a few errors that really bother me. So I'll just chalk this up as a learning curve and practice makes one come closer to perfection. Uh oh, that means I'll have to do a lot of practicing @ Carl: Yup, this is truly my very first try at carving, no 3D or bass relief, nada in the carving world. I do have steady hands and patience, except with myself, I get upset when I can't do things right from the start By the way, Gwen thinks its cute and likes it Well then, today I tried to finish the Sura and Buaya carving but noticed a few rather glaring flaws and tried to monk with them. But in the end things still bothered me and rather then saying "good enough," or "you can't see it from 10, 000 feet", I'd rather make another carving. Hey, no prob - I learned a few things and that's a good thing. I did stain it, heavy I must say, with cherry and it did improve the looks but still not good enough. I do have a request to make though. What color would you advice for this particular carving? I'll be framing the counter with a floral motif and paint it in yellow ocher. Perhaps in that case a light stain would probably be best as a nice contrast to the cherry background and the ocher border carvings. I also made a start with carving one of knechten (nights) for the forecastle bits. The scale is so small that this was a real test in miniature carving. At least it looks like a face but I call it a Rapa Nui So, I'll have to try another one and another one and another one till they look half way decent. Hedy, I'm having fun and that's the main thing. This shows the doctored up and stained SuraBaya carving and the name banner below it. That'll be ascream carving the lettering. Here is my first attempt carving a miniature head. Well, okay it's version 1.0 with many more attempts to come. Here we see Rapa Nui on the bit post. He still needs a hat of some sort and paint but - - - back to carving another one. A cheeky little fellow, looks like he's got jaundice or some other problem, the poor fellow. He's done with a #11 blade and some sandpaper. Cheers,

She looks mighty fine on her throne Nenad, mighty fine. We are all awaiting further construction on her majesty. Cheers,

Nice work Pete. Cheers,

I am thoroughly enjoying your fantasy come to live. Marvelous job on the shingles Dennis and with the windows in the walls - - - what can we say but - - nnniiiiiiiice. Cheers,

Nice work Mark. Love the windows. Cheers,

Fantastic project you have taken on. Looks like you are well on your way, looks very good. Cheers,

Lovely work Remco and what a beautiful scarf joint. How many hours of tedious labor did that take? I venture to say that the Admiralty would be rather pleased. Cheers,

Congrats Dave, fantastic achievement. Quite a variety of figures you have, makes it the more interesting to look ogle at. Cheers,

Hey JesseLee, if those are the black wire eye bolts you put in, well, they look pretty good from here. I wouldn't worry about them being slightly out of scale, it surely doesn't show. Nice progress my friend. Cheers,

Good idea on the chain stopper Nils. No one will know it's not original and wont tell Looks very convincing! Cheers,

Nice work Dave - - - ummmm, two carvings in one day???? Getoutahere already Here I work 5 hours and am not even half done with my carving. Must be something wrong with me Like those dragons Dave! Cheers,

Beautiful work on the planking Michael and a great safe on your scraper tool. It's indeed nearly impossible to replicate a new one exactly the same. Things are looking really good - love the lines! Cheers,